Date: Sun, 12 Feb 1995 15:54:11 -0500
From: DENLEWIS@delphi.com
To: Multiple recipients of list GLB-NEWS
Subject: Gay Rights: The Next Two Years ...
With conservative Republicans calling the shots in Washington, gay men and
lesbians may spend the next two years treading water rather than moving
forward in the area of equal rights, according to an article by David W.
Dunlap that ran in the national edition of The New York Times on Feb. 12.
Headlined "Gay Leaders Resist Attacks on Gains," Dunlap begins the article
by recalling a scene from two years ago, when openly gay Rep. Gerry E. Studds
of Massachusetts and his companion, Dean Hara, stood together in the Capitol
in a gathering to welcome newly inaugurated President Clinton.
Dunlap quotes Studds saying, "I was euphoric," but notes that lesbian and
gay political leaders are anything but euphoric today. Dunlap notes that a
struggle is likely on funds for AIDS services, research, and prevention; that
passage of a federal anti-discrimination bill was likely killed by the conser-
vative tide; that N.C. Sen. Jesse Helms has introduced a bill to curtail
activities of gay federal employees; and that House Speaker Newt Gingrich has
left open the possibility of granting Traditional Values Coalition chairman
Lou Sheldon's request for a hearing on AIDS instruction in public schools.
Dunlap's article continues:
"We are living in a complete sea change," said Elizabeth Birch,
executive director of the Human Rights Campaign Fund. ... "There is
no president who is going to ride in on a white horse, and there is
no one party that is going to save us."
A member of the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco, Susan
Leal, is helping to organize a meeting at the White House of
lesbian and gay officials. "I know the country is in a rightward
swing," Ms. Leal said. "But I'm concerned about this administration
and the Democratic Party feeling that, in social issues, they have
to step into the Republican bog."
Nonetheless, after years of casting their lot largely with the
Democratic party, gay political organizations are waking up to the
need to court Republicans, too.
But the effort to forge a bipartisan alliance is late getting
started.
"Nobody visited Republicans on the Hill," said Ricahrd L. Tafel,
executive director of Log Cabin Republicans, the lobbying arm of
the Log Cabin Federation, a network of 43 clubs for gay
Republicans. "I was often the first gay leader to talk to them
about gay and lesbian issues."
Dunlap says the first legislative test of a gay-related issue will be the
Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resource Emergency Act, which has to be
reauthorized to prevent its expiration on Sept. 30. The budget that Clinton
is sending to Congress on Monday proposes a 14 percent increase in spending
under the act, to $723 million, Dunlap said.
Dunlap quotes GOP Rep. Steve Gunderson of Wisconsin: "I think you'll see a
strong, and in some people's eyes, very surprising commitment by the
Republicans to Ryan White." (Has Gunderson made a public statement about his
sexuality? Dunlap identifies him as being openly gay in a paragraph near the
end of the article, when he describes "a moment that would have been
unimaginable not long ago" -- an openly gay member of Congress [Gunderson]
presiding over the House.)
Dunlap quotes Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts as saying the vote on the
Ryan White act will not be a meaningful barometer:
"It's not controversial," [Frank] said. "It's not a gay-rights
issue."
A more telling indiator of Republicans' stands on gay issues,
Mr. Frank said. is the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which
would prohibit discrimination against homosexuals in work places.
Mr. Gunderson, who did not cosponsor the bill when it was intro-
duced in the last Congress, said he would probably do so in this
session.
But the Log Cabin group, which supported the bill last year, now
says it should be delayed, Mr. Tafel said. "We need to think about
other ways to accomplish our goals," he added.
Of that stance, Mr. Frank said, "When you have the gay
Republicans' telling the Republican leadership, in effect, 'Forget
about it,' that makes it harder."
Dunlap concludes the article by noting that federal agencies have begun
issuing policies protecting homosexuals from discrimination, and sexual
orientation is not an obstacle to security clearances. He notes that numerous
openly gay and lesbian officials have been appointed during the Clinton
administration, and he writes: "In a graphic measure of their sense of job
security, more than 24 posed recently for a group portrait than ran in 'Out'."